Posts tagged ‘ufa’

Just a quick post about what you can look forward to seeing this week.

Tuesday. KHL’s leaders Atlant Mytischi host Ak Bars Kazan.

Wednesday. The brand new IIHF European Champions League starts. The KHL is represented by last year’s Russian Superliga champions Salavat Yulayev Ufa and last year’s European Cup winners Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Magnitka does not have a game this Wednesday, but Salavat will take on HC České Budějovice, last year’s regular season champs in the Czech Extraliga, and we’ll have that game for you to check out.

Thursday. Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Cherepanov and the rest of Avangard Omsk visit Moscow to take on Spartak.

Friday. Salavat Yulayev Ufa are flying all the way to Khabarovsk, the Eastern most KHL city to take on Amur.

One of those games we got a chance to see for ourselves. A great, open game played at an incredible pace. Boris Mikhaylov’s troops from Novokuznetsk were not afraid to get into a run and gun contest with the one of the KHL’s powerhouses, Ak Bars Kazan. It was also our first chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, the youngest player in the KHL. He’s #91 (sporting a full face shield) on the Metallurg squad.

This week’s must see game features currently the top 2 teams in the KHL. These are also two hottest teams in the league coming into the game on long winning streaks. Atlant won 6 straight while Avangard is on a 7-game winning streak (which coincidentally or not started right after they fired their coach… who said Jaromir Jagr can’t be a player coach?). The game also features the current points leader in the entire league, Sergei Mozyakin of Atlant and the current top goal scorer, Jaromir Jagr (10). New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov is coming into the match on his own streak having scored goals in 5 straight games and having scored points in 7 straight. If all of this weren’t enough the game also features two former NHL goalies, John Graham of Ak Bars and Ray Emery of Atlant. Both are playing very well so far sporting a .930 save percentage. We just had to check this one out for ourselves and it didn’t disappoint.

Magnitka’s first game after the Victoria Cup game vs. the New York Rangers turned into quite an ill tempered affair. Fans of hockey fisticuffs might want to check this one out. Who says Russians don’t fight?

Another chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, this time in a game vs. last season’s Russian Superliga champs, Salavat. For Salavat this is the last KHL game before they make their debut in the brand new European Champions League.

Here’s another chance to see the Russian Super League leaders Salavat Yulayev Ufa in action, this time against CSKA Moscow.

We have pretty much sung all the praises we could muster for Salavat in some of our previous RSL Game of the Week posts. They have been the dominant team all season long. It is to be expected considering all the money oil giant Bashneft have invested into what is the most offensively gifted line-up in the RSL (the Ufa club’s 3rd and 4th line consists of players who were leaders of their former teams) and that their ultimate goal for this season is to win the Russian championship.

This should be yet another great game. The CSKA Ice Palace, home of the Russian Red Army team, as CSKA is known in the West, is absolutely packed with fans for the visit of the league leaders and the atmosphere is rocking.

You can watch the game in the streaming player or download the file to your computer by clicking the “Open Containing Folder” link below the player, right clicking the file and selecting the “download” option.

For those who are wondering we have not gone to the edge of the Earth and dropped off the cliff. There were a few technical difficulties with the host of the games, which prevented us from posting the last RSL Game of the Week prior to the RSL going on a bit of a hiatus due to the international break for the European Hockey Tour. The technical issues have now been resolved.

To make up for our brief absence watch for 3 great RSL games to be posted later today. The first one will be the aforementioned game that was played just before the break (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl @ Dinamo Moscow). The other two will be games played in recent days since the RSL got back to business and will feature a couple of truly great match-ups: runaway league leaders Salavat Yulayev Ufa @ Avangard Omsk and a battle between last year’s finalists, Ak Bars Kazan @ Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

If there is interest we will also try to post the 2 games that the Russian national team played during the international break in the Euro Hockey Tour vs. Finland and the Czech Republic. Either comment or use the contact form to let us know if you’d like to see these games.